Design for a Vessel 19th century

This is an anonymous design for a vessel, rendered in ink on paper. Designs like this were circulated throughout Europe, particularly from the 16th through 18th centuries, when the continent's various royal houses, noble families, and merchant princes vied to outdo one another in displays of wealth and status. Consider, for instance, the architectural details of the piece. There is the suggestion of classical forms--the acanthus leaves, the symmetry--but they are rendered in a rather extravagant way. The cultural context for this kind of design was the print shop, and the artist here would have been aware that his design would be consumed as an image, perhaps more than as a functional object. Historians of design like myself look to these sorts of images to understand what those with wealth aspired to possess. We consult surviving inventories of aristocratic households and probate records to try and understand how these sorts of objects circulated, and what they meant to those who owned them. We can ask: What did it mean to possess such an object? And what social relations did these objects enable?